Saturday, April 03, 2010

Update from Jacmel Haiti

I will give you an overview of the first few weeks here so far. The first week was a bit rough, but quite an adventure. Between balancing the team’s schedule, making contacts with local pastors and organizations, and figuring out all the “how-tos” of the house, it was not easy to establish myself here, but I loved every minute of it.

The Second week was a bit easier, Dave’s arrival here was a breath of fresh air. With Dave here the workload was cut in half, giving me more time to focus on the ministry aspect of all Calvary Chapel is doing here. I was able to put a better schedule in place and make more connections with pastors on a personal level.

The Third week was the best. Dave and I were able to connect more with Cody and Maria. Cody and Maria have been a huge blessing in connecting us with ministry opportunities. The third team had huge servant hearts. It was cool to see how God gave each team only the amount of work they could handle. For this team, God gave them a lot, and they did all of it with a smile on their faces. We were also blessed with two new translators: Delpha and Nerlande. They are my two new best friends. Spending time with them has helped my Creole significantly. Nerlande says that she will not talk to me unless I speak to her in Creole. Delpha has been my key guy in helping translate for VBS. Nerlande has been awesome in helping us get food in the market and helping the women from the team communicate with the women and girls we meet at VBS and Work locations.

After team three, I have been able to put a weekly schedule together, of course everything is subject to change, but I have a schedule in place with pastors at VBS locations and with the orphanage visits. Things have really come together upon the arrival of team four. The VBS program is coming together nicely. I am thinking about calling it “Children’s Program” rather than “Vacation Bible School” because the Haitians refer to it as “Children’s Program”. Also, I got the opportunity to preach at Pastor Ginais’ Church this week. Pastor Ginais is a pastor I meet in the community where the first team built the house. Him and I have become good friends. We also do a Children’s Program in that community once a week now.

This up coming week I am planning on putting together a puppet routine in Creole, also building a puppet stage. Pastor Joseph asked if we could teach English to the children at his school during Children’s Program, so I am planning to also put together a powerpoint show with shapes, colors, animals, and other simple things to learn in English.

This trip has been an awesome experience so far, and I am honored to be apart of what God is already doing in Jacmel. It has been an Adventure.